Best Week Ever‘s Amanda Seales Wants You To “Say What You Mean” In Relationships

Best Week Ever might still be on the best summer break ever, but New Yorkers can catch DJ, comic and hostess with the mostess, Amanda Seales, at The Stand this month. Amanda is starring in a brand new one woman show about relationships called It’s Complicated. We got a chance to check the show out and to chat with Amanda about the show and why ladies need to keep their “chickenhead in check.”

VH1: So, what inspired your new one woman show, It’s Complicated?

Amanda Seales: Everyone asks me relationship questions all the freaking time. Which I’m like, I’m not good at this shit. So, it’s always kind of interesting to me that people will ask me, but it’s because I’m really good at problem solving. Like I’m really good at diagnosing an issue and then attaching the solution to it. It’s like a thing that I do.

And I’m way better at doing it for other people than myself. So, people recognize that and I realize a lot of these people are asking the same questions. I think a lot of women right now are really in a state of genuine concern when it comes to, “Am I really going to get the love that I want?” And I think a lot of stuff that I see in the terms of literature etc, is basically saying that you have to like, change your, you need to rearrange. Like you’re asking for too much. I see it all the time, and I personally feel like it’s about understanding ourselves better.

And I don’t think that’s been talked about enough. I think it’s the core to getting anything you want. Whether it’s the career you want, or the education you want, or the love you want. When you look at yourself and do the problem solving and the diagnosing with yourself first it gets you to a better place. And I-that’s what the show tries to get across through different facets. So whether it’s making better emotional and-making bigger decisions with emotional intelligence. It’s really about you as a person not everybody else.

VH1: The show is a mix of stand up and character segments. What inspired the character segments?

AS: I am a character myself. But I do think that it’s kind of an interesting way to get things across to people without kicking them in the head.

You know? Like when you’re talking about anything that involves like enlightenment or wellness, etc. you can really easily venture into “Self-Righteous Land.” And when you do characters, it takes you out of your own voice and it allows you to speak in someone else’s voice and I think that, you know, it allows the message to get across in a different way that’s a lot less hard-hitting, but it’s still effective. You know, it’d be one thing for me to be saying, “You know, all y’all have ‘chickenhead in you’ and you need to get that in check,” but it sounds so much better and it’s so much funnier when it’s coming from an actual chickenhead.

VH1: Do you have a favorite part of the show that you always look forward to?

AS: Yes, I always look forward to “Smart Woman/Dumb Girl” because the audience gets so invested in the answers and I love the fact that this whole room of people who don’t know each other from Adam innately become comfortable enough to get on a mic and disagree with someone else. And it’s in a way that’s not disrespectful at all, you know? It’s just for the purpose of saying, “No, this is a better way.” And it’s fun to see people like challenge each other to make a better decision. You know? Like that really is to me a dope dynamic. “Like, wait. You’re challenging her to make a better decision?” You’re not challenging out of this whole ratchet movement crap. It’s not about status. It’s not about money. It’s all about this is the best decision for wellness and I’m like appreciative that I could create a forum for that.

VH1: So there is a lot of audience participation. Have you been surprised by your audiences in any way?

AS: You know, it’s funny. What I love about the show is that it’s never the same show, right? You know, no two audiences are the same and I’m just surprised every time because every time we do “Smart Woman/Dumb Girl” where I present different scenarios with different outcomes and they have to choose who the “Smart Woman” and who the “Dumb Girl” is, I’m always surprised at the difference between like the thinking on what a “Smart Woman” and what a “Dumb Girl” is. It changes every night. So, basically I guess sometimes I have audiences full of smart broads and sometimes I have audiences full of dumb girls.

But the answers are at the end of the day, my bottom line. Like I’m the one who gets to go, “Okay, okay, okay, okay…” But, I guess, no…you know what? The biggest surprise to me is how men respond. The men really take it personal and when they put in their two cents, I think all of us in the room are like, “Oh shit! That’s what you thought?” And we’re all like, “Wow, uh, I guess we were all wrong, ladies.” I think a lot of women think they know men just because it seems like a thing to say, but we don’t. We don’t have dicks.

VH1: If you could give women, and I guess men, one piece of dating advice, what would it be?

AS: Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Whether you’re dating, whether you’re in a relationship, or breaking up, that to me is the bottom line to just not be wasting other people’s time.

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VH1: So what’s your favorite part about working on Best Week Ever?

AS: My favorite part about working on Best Week Ever is that I get to a part of this team of awesome comedians and that we get to actually like point out the trends that are happening in America. Like, that’s not something we take lightly. And we get to be paid to be funny—what? That never ceases to amaze me by the way. “So, okay, just so I know, just so we understand…I’m going to tell a joke about stuff that I already think is funny and this is my job?” “Yes.” Whhaaaaat? It doesn’t get any better. I get to get up and go to work and laugh for a living.

VH1: It’s on hiatus now, but if you were on Best Week Ever this week, who would you say is having the Best Week Ever?

AS: Girls with short hair are having the Best Week Ever because now that Beyonce’s cut her hair they are instantly cool.